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“Frankie and I are going in the same direction…”
“Not hardly,” Jake muttered, then shook his head and waved me off. “Go on, Frankie, we’ll figure this out. I know you’re busy and some assholes can just be patient.”
Coop glared at him.
Yep. I didnotwant a piece of that.
“Let me know,” I said with a fast smile and hauled ass. Thirty-five minutes later, twenty minutes after my shift I clocked out. I had three tables left but they’d park my tips and I could get those on Saturday—if there were any. Thursdays weren’t usually so busy, maybe it was a full moon. Part of the reason I liked having Fridays off. The others liked the extra money they got on Friday nights, and I didn’t like the headaches.
I made pretty good money on Saturdays and Sundays to make up for it.
The guys were out front arguing when I made it to the parking lot. Well, it looked like arguing. I’d counted out my tips in the back and turned the small bills into larger ones so I could fit them in my wallet. Seventy for a Thursday was pretty frigging great. No arguments here.
But now, feet sore and head aching, I really didn’t want to deal with the guys as Archie glared at Coop and the two argued back in forth in tones that carried but with words that didn’t. Instead of participating, Jake leaned against his own SUV arms folded while Bubba stood a foot away from the guys as if ready to wade in and separate them.
And fine, they could do whatever they wanted, but they’d parked right next tomycar. So… I sucked it up and put two fingers to my lips and let out a shrill whistle as I approached.
That shut them up.
“Fuck,” Archie swore and shook his head. “You could cut glass with the tone you can hit.”
“Thanks,” I said, all smiles. “I’m done and going home. Is Coop riding with me or have you not given him his note yet?”
For his part, Coop’s smirk turned sour and he flipped me off. No Coop, I wasn’t on your side at the moment, I just wanted to go home.
“If you want to take him,” Archie said, almost reluctantly. “But you don’t have to.”
“No kidding,” I retorted, and Archie frowned.
“Wait,” he said glancing at me. “Why are you mad at me?”
“I don’t know,” I said considering them each in turn. Jake straightened abruptly with a frown. “Did you guys not givemepermission to have an opinion?”
“Nope,” Bubba said abruptly, slinging an arm around my shoulder. “They didn’t, and they wouldn’t because that would be stupid. Ignore them, Frankie, they’re all cranky tonight.”
“Uh huh.” But the quiet request in Bubba’s eyes shut me up. Whatever it was they’d been arguing about, he wanted it over.Fine.I gave him a sideways hug and he smiled.
“Fine, I’m tired, so I’m going. Good night, boys. Coop, you want to go with me, get in the car or I’m leaving you.”
He was already circling the car when I hit unlock.
“Frankie,” Archie said. “I didn’t mean anything…”
“You never do. I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow, okay? Everyone go get some sleep. Especially you two—you have a game tomorrow.”
As much as they didn’t deserve it, I kind of wanted to cheer Archie up now. He’d had a crappy evening, and Jake looked from me to Bubba and back again twice. Finally, he gave me a small smile and tugged my ponytail lightly. “Night, Frankie.”
“Night, Frankie,” Archie echoed him.
Bubba winked. “Night, Frankie.”
God, we were like some twenty-first century Waltons. “Good night, John Boy.”
I was in the car with the engine started with Jake went, “Who the hell is John Boy?”
I don’t know why, maybe because I was tired, but that made me laugh. Coop was quiet as I backed out of the spot, and he didn’t say a word until after I’d pulled out onto the street and the lights of Mason’s faded behind us.
“You aren’t going to ask?” he said into the quiet dark of the car.
